id probably say about $15 total to include manufacturing and all the background stuff maybe testing to but yeh Avalon are really screwing people over for these but does that really surprise anyone the company with the least amount of resorses managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat and are quite welcome to make as much profit as they can out of it
and there still the only really player in the market thanks to all these idiots that have let the projects die or tried to over design things like BFL
Avalons strategy of going with more chips for the price of power worked they required far less design and where much much easier to get made.... they also went with china to make the things which in my books on getting the things to market will beat anything made in the EU or USA by months
ill give it to the chine's when it comes to building and getting it done fast there the ones to go with
These block erupters are from ASICMINER not Avalon btw.
and dont forget the power there already on the very edge of usb 2 capability to get more power they would have to go usb 3 or even external power sources...
Those are 0.6w at 12v (50ma!), they'll draw even less at 5v (USB spec is 5v*500ma=2.5w); you could run at least 10 off a standard USB socket!